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Six Little Bunkers at Cousin Tom's, a novel by Laura Lee Hope |
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Chapter 14. Violet's Doll |
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_ CHAPTER XIV. VIOLET'S DOLL You can easily believe that Mrs. Bunker did hurry on hearing what Russ was calling about Mun Bun and Margy. She almost fell out of the hammock, did Mrs. Bunker, she was in such haste. "Daddy! Daddy! Come quick!" she called to her husband, who was in the bungalow, talking to Cousin Tom. "Margy and Mun Bun are in a boat on the inlet and are being carried out to sea. Hurry!" Daddy Bunker also hurried. Mother Bunker was the first to get down to the shore, where she could see what had happened. At first all she noticed was Russ jumping up and down in his excitement, and, at the same time, pointing to something on the water. Mrs. Bunker looked at what Russ was pointing to and saw that it was Cousin Tom's smaller rowboat, and, also, that in it were her two little children, Mun Bun and Margy! And the boat was being carried by the tide down the inlet toward the sea. The inlet, when the tide was flowing in or out, was like a powerful river, more powerful in its current than Rainbow River at home in Pineville, where the six little Bunkers lived. "Oh, Margy! Mun Bun!" cried Mrs. Bunker, holding out her hands to the children. "Oh, what will happen to them?" went on Mother Bunker, as she reached Russ standing near the edge of the inlet. She could see the boat, with Margy and Mun Bun in it, drifting farther and farther away. "Oh, I must get them!" Mrs. Bunker was just about to rush into the water, all dressed as she was. She had an idea she might wade out and get hold of the boat to bring it back. But the inlet was too deep for that. "Wait a minute! Don't go into the water, Mother! We'll get the children back all right!" cried Daddy Bunker, as he ran up beside his wife and caught her by the arm. "How?" asked Mrs. Bunker, clinging to her husband. "We'll go after them in another boat," said Mr. Bunker. "Here comes Cousin Tom. He and I will go after the children in the other boat. You sit down and wait for us. We'll soon have them back!" Cousin Tom had two boats tied at the pier in the inlet. One was the large one in which they had gone crabbing a few days before, and the other was the small one in which Margy and Mun Bun had gone drifting away. Daddy Bunker, left his wife sitting on the sand and ran to loosen the large boat. But Cousin Tom cried: "Don't take that. It will be too slow and too heavy to row." "What shall we take?" asked the children's father. "Here comes a motor-boat. I'll hail the man in that and ask him to go after the drifting boat for us," Cousin Tom answered. "All right," agreed Mr. Bunker, as he looked up and saw coming down the inlet, or Clam River, a speedy motor-boat, in which sat a man. This would be much faster than a rowboat. Just then Mrs. Bunker, who had jumped up from the sand where she had been sitting for a moment, and who was running toward her husband, cried: "Oh, see! The children are standing up! Oh, if they should fall overboard!" Margy and Mun Bun, who, at first, had been sitting down in the drifting boat, were now seen to be standing up. And it is always dangerous to stand up in a small boat. Daddy Bunker put his hands to his mouth, to make a sort of megaphone, and called: "Sit down, Margy! Sit down, Mun Bun! Sit down and keep quiet and Daddy will soon come for you. Sit down and keep still!" Mun Bun and his little sister did as their father told them, and sat down in the middle of the boat. "Now we'll get them all right," said Mr. Bunker to his wife. "Don't worry--they will be all right." Cousin Tom ran out on the end of his pier. He waved his hands to the man in the motor-boat, who was a lobster fisherman, going out to "lift" his pots. "Wait a minute!" called Cousin Tom. "Two children are adrift in that boat. We want to go after them!" The lobster fisherman waved his hand to show that he understood. The motor of his boat was making such a noise that he could not make his voice heard, nor could he tell what Cousin Tom was saying. But he knew what was meant, for he saw the drifting boat. With another wave of his hand to show that he knew what was wanted of him, the lobsterman steered his boat toward Cousin Tom's wharf. A few minutes later Daddy Bunker and Cousin Tom were in it, and were speeding down Clam River after the drifting craft in which sat Margy and Mun Bun. "How did it happen?" asked Mr. Oscar Burnett, the lobster fisherman, as he steered his boat down stream. "I don't know," answered Daddy Bunker "All I know is my wife called to me to come out, and I saw the two tots drifting off in the boat." "They must have climbed in to play when the boat was tied to the wharf," said Cousin Tom. "Then either they or some one else must have loosened the rope." "Maybe it came loose of itself," suggested Daddy Bunker. "It couldn't," said Cousin Tom. "I tied it myself, and I am a good enough sailor to know how to tie a boat so it won't work loose." "Yes, I guess you are," said Mr. Burnett. "The youngsters must have loosened the rope themselves. Or some older children did it, for those two are pretty small," and he looked at Margy and Mun Bun, for the motor-boat was now quite near the drifting rowboat. "All right, Margy! All right, Mun Bun! We'll soon have you back safe!" called Daddy Bunker to them, waving his hands. Both children were crying. Up alongside the drifting rowboat went the lobster craft. Cousin Tom caught hold of the boat in which the children sat, and held it while Daddy Bunker lifted out Margy and her brother. Then the rowboat was tied fast to the stern of the other boat, which was steered around by Mr. Burnett, and headed up the inlet. "I've got time to take you back to your pier," he said to Cousin Tom. "I started out a bit early this morning, so I don't have to hurry. Besides, the tide is running pretty strong, and you'd have it a bit hard rowing back." "It's a good thing you came along," said Daddy Bunker, as he thanked the lobsterman. "The children might have been carried out to sea." "Oh, the life guard at the station on the beach would have seen them in time," returned Mr. Burnett. "But I'm just as glad we got them when we did." "What made you go off in the boat?" asked Daddy Bunker of Margy. "We didn't mean to," answered Mun Bun. "We got in to play sail, and the boat went off by itself." And this was about all the two children could say as to what had happened. They had got into the boat, which was tied to the pier, and had been playing in it for some time. Then, before they knew it, the boat became loose, and drifted off. Russ, who had been playing on the beach not far away, had seen them, but not in time to help them. He had, indeed, called to them to "come out of the boat," but then it was too late for Margy and Mun Bun to do this. There was already some water between their boat and the pier. Then Russ did the next best thing; he called his mother. It did not take long for the lobster motor-boat to make the run back to Cousin Tom's pier, pulling the empty rowboat behind. Mrs. Bunker rushed down and hugged Margy and Mun Bun in her arms. "Oh, I thought I should never see you again!" she cried, and there were tears in her eyes. "We didn't mean to go away in the boat," said Margy. "We didn't mean to," repeated Mun Bun. And of course the children did not. They had been playing in the boat as it was tied to the wharf, and they never thought it would get loose. Just how this happened was never found out. Perhaps Mun Bun or Margy might have pulled at the knot in the rope until they loosened it, and the tug of the tide did the rest. But the children were soon safe on the beach again, playing in the sand, and the alarm was over. "What makes the water in the inlet run up sometimes and down other times?" asked Violet. "It's the tide," said Russ, who had heard some fishermen talking about high and low water. "What's the tide?" went on the little girl. "The moon," added Russ. "I heard Mother read a story, and it said the moon makes the tides." "Does it, Daddy?" persisted Violet. She certainly had her questioning cap on that evening. "Yes, the moon causes the tides," said Daddy Bunker. "But just how, it is a bit hard to tell to such little children. The moon pulls on the water in the oceans, just as a magnet pulls on a piece of iron or steel. When the moon is on one side of the earth it pulls the water into a sort of bunch, or hill, there, and that makes it lower in the opposite part of the earth. That is low tide. Then, as the moon changes, it pulls the water up in the place where it was low before, and that makes high tide. And when the tide is high in our ocean here it pushes a lot of water up Clam River. And when the water is low in our ocean here the water runs out of Clam River. That is what makes high tide and low tide here." "Oh," said Violet, though I am not sure she understood all about it. But after that Margy and Mun Bun were careful about getting into the boat, even when they felt sure it was tightly tied to the pier. They always waited until some older folks were with them, and this was the best way. The happy days passed at Cousin Tom's. The six little Bunkers played on the beach, and, now and then, they looked and dug holes to try to find Rose's locket. "I guess it's gone forever," said the little girl as the days passed and no locket appeared. And she never even dreamed of the strange way good luck was to come to her once more. One warm day, when all the children were playing down on the sandy shore of the inlet, Violet came running back to the house. "Mother, make Russ stop!" she cried. "What is he doing?" asked Mrs. Bunker. "He's taking my doll. He's going to take her out on the ocean in a boat. Make him stop." "Oh, Russ mustn't do that!" exclaimed Mrs. Bunker. "Of course I'll make him stop!" She went down to the beach with Violet, and, just as they came within sight of the group of children, they heard Rose say: "Oh, Russ! Now you've done it! You have drowned Vi's doll!" _ |
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